informal system of the Governor appointing Members from a wide range of professional and occupational groups, through which much specialist knowl- edge and valuable expertise had been provided to the Council.
84.
concept of functional constituencies has been criticized as elitist and unduly advantageous to the groups represented. On the whole, however, comments on the system have been favourable, and there have been suggestions that the number of seats should be increased to enable other significant sectors of the community to be thus represented.
85. It was made clear in 1985 to sectors which complained of being left out, that they would continue to be represented through the appointment system. Nevertheless, since the 1984 White Paper, a number of professional bodies and organizations, a list of which is at Appendix E, have requested formal rec- ognition as functional constituencies. Some (e.g. accountants) have sought to become new functional constituencies, while others (e.g. dentists) have sought inclusion in an existing constituency. At the same time, in at least two constituencies which are made up of two or more professional groupings, some of the numerically smaller groups (e.g. architects in the Engineers and asso- ciated professions constituency) have expressed the view that their interests are inadequately represented because they are heavily outnumbered.
86. There has also been some criticism of the voting arrangements at the 1985 elections. Some social workers and members of labour unions were unhappy that votes in their respective functional constituencies were given to social welfare agencies and labour unions as such, and not to individual members. This was done because of the difficulty of defining qualifications for member- ship of these constituencies. The type of preferential voting system used in the elections was also criticized and will need to be re-examined: this point is covered in paragraphs 141-145 below.
87.
Most of the views expressed continue to be in favour of retaining functional constituencies as a system for selecting members of the Legislative Council. The range of constituencies will be considered in the light of public response to the Green Paper to see whether other sectors of the community should be thus represented in the Council.
Options for 1988
88.
The options for 1988 would therefore seem to be:
(i) to retain the present nine constituencies electing 12 Members to the
Legislative Council;
(ii) to maintain the existing number of constituencies but to enlarge the scope of some constituencies, with or without an additional seat in the Legislative Council allocated to them;
(iii) to create new constituencies with their own seats in the Legislative
Council.
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